Archive for the ‘respect’ category

The somewhat National Socialist flavour of the NHS under Blair’s privatisation campaign was thrown into a limelight for me yesterday.

Responding to a question from my local medical centre (responsible to yes, you know ’em, those friends of openness and accountability: the Bexley PCT!) I told them my wish: that I did not want my medical records entered on this strange Spine thingy the New Labour Luvvies have invented. They told me “But you’re already on it – it’s been done!”

Oh, OK, I’m protesting. Angrily. These avid servants of the warmonger Blair prate of the security of my records – but there is none. Not in the real world of computing. Have you checked the whereabouts of your records?

All this was after I digested the last bit of effrontery and treachery I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs: the barging in of the PCT between my GP and any consultant to whom my GP may wish to refer me. That’s the affront, the treachery is that there must (I assume) be doctors assisting/advising this PCT whose training we have paid for and provided in the NHS.

Then last night I saw BBC2’s documentary on the expected bird ‘flu epidemic. I am not reassured.

For it looks as though by the time the next bird ‘flu outbreak is due, Blair and his loyal servants will have succeeded in privatising our once-glorious NHS into the greedy hands of New Labour’s mates, the big money men.

The Dutch people are now frightened by the fast-growing immigrant quarters of their cities.In a few years’ time, half the citizens of Amsterdam will be from ethnic minorities, most of whom will be Muslims.

It seems that the Dutch are afraid that their liberal views, lax laws on drugs and racial tolerance may backfire on them. Theo van Gogh made a film showing verses from the Koran, which called for the subjugation of women, projected onto the bodies of naked girls.

Mohammed Bouyeri did not like this film.In Amsterdam, in broad daylight, he shot Van Gogh and cut off his head.This happened in November 2004.

Will this behaviour be repeated throughout Europe?It is difficult to think of a just and workable solution to the problem of immigration.It is sure to get worse.Is it possible for different races with different customs and religions to live together in harmony?

Perhaps Prince Charles should not become defender of the “faiths” when (if) he comes to the throne: maybe we should be a secular nation and ban all religions.

The Government has a tricky job in trying to sort out priorities in the way the Health Service spends its cash allocation. It seems to think it is the right action to take to spend £1.5 thousand million on management consultants. Maybe they are worth their pay.

The Government says that this is cost effective, but paying £2.50 per day on a drug to slow down the effects of Alzheimer’s is not.

There has been an increase in the prescriptions for anti-psychotic drugs with serious side effects to troublesome elderly patients suffering from dementia. This sedates the patients which covers up the shortage of properly trained staff to care for them.

Our politicians should think ahead on this problem, which is quite common in many geriatric wards and private care homes. One day they may need the services offered by these establishments. They should do something about it now.

The ICU (Islamic Courts Union) took over in Somalia and imposed Sharia Law with punishments which include amputations and/or executions for piracy.

For the last 15 years, when the last effective government collapsed, there had been a lot of pirate activity. Sea captains were advised not to come within a hundred miles of the Somalia coast for fear of pirates since the American liner Seabourn Spirit was attacked less than a year ago. Between March and July this year 40 attacks were reported. There have been none since.

Where does this leave the argument that capital punishment is no deterrent?

Back in the days of the Hollywood film star, homosexuals stayed firmly in the closet.

Louis B Mayer, the boss of MGM, had a cunning plan to discover who among his stars was queer. Near to the studio he opened a brothel and made no secret of the fact that if any of the bachelor staff did not make regular visits, they would be sacked!

Things have changed in the USA since those days and even the Republicans have back-pedalled. Maybe it is because a senior Republican congressman was caught attempting to seduce under-aged young men and vice president Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter.

I have lived in Thamesmead since long before the disaster of 1986, the year when Blair’s Mum Thatcher bitchily scrapped the GLC. Our great town of Thamesmead, then still green and pleasant, was then ditched into the rubbish tip of parliamentary thinking, ending up having a “trust” imposed on it.
The carpetbaggers and the brown-nosers came running from far and wide, fat noses ready for the trough. After all, this was a whole new town, stretched vastly along the South side of what was to become, many years later, the “Thames Gateway”.
Well it was a surprise. Few outsiders expected the combined strengths of the council chambers of both Bexley and Greenwich to fall in line with its Thatcherism (can anyone now recall just how “red” Greenwich Council was, then?). The great and the good, leaders of the political and religious groupings, all assembled to join in the “big exploitation”. For their eventual gain.
But first the community had to have its strong and able neck wrung. As it disagreed with the Trust idea, the TCA and its paper Insight had to go. Even then, there were some who thought their local elected representatives would defend them, and care for their community institutions as did the GLC.
But look now. Of the many quangos that resulted here post-1986, which do not have a councillor representation from either of the two boroughs on their boards? Even the grandmummy of them all, Thamesmead Town Ltd*, which was supposed to be wound up but was kept, we were told, to “satisfy winding up of tax/pension matters”. Its use these days, inter alia, seems to be to maintain its delegatory powers to Trust Thamesmead …
Now they serve, these elected councillors, on quangos dealing with all manner of “weighty” matters – with a large number of these bodies sporting a title including the word “trust”.
So, do we have to do something extraordinarily effective – that is, beyond anything the New Labour Luvvies could do?
Like re-defining the word “trust” to mean the opposite of what they want you to accept. Because you can’t, any more.
Trust, that is.
Don

* The company that fell into such disgrace after its board voted to submit itself to lie-detector tests. It’s true, it’s history – check the back-numbers of the NewsShopper and the archives of the Thamesmead People held on microfiche in Bexley libraries.

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